M.J. Akbar, who the grapevine says was ousted from the editorship of The Asian Age due to his staunch opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, goes for the jugular in his column in the Khaleej Times of Dubai:

“The Manmohan Singh government has been unable to bear the burden of an alliance with George W. Bush. The Congress encouraged the illusion, with the help of a cabal of analysts, publicists and lobbyists, that the Left was a lapdog rather than a watchdog, and could be either appeased by a bone or silenced with a stick. When the moment came to choose, the Congress stood with Bush instead of Prakash Karat.

“The official excuse for this decision is energy. But this is deception.

“Dr Manmohan Singh deliberately sabotaged a much cheaper and more immediate source of energy for the country when he deliberately undermined the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, raising one false spectre after another to mislead the country, so that it would seem that there was no option but to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal.

“We have forgotten now that the first objection he raised, three years ago, was that financing would be a problem.”

Whatever be the faults of UPA and the PM Manmohan Singh, if it comes to credibility or taking a decision to in the interest of the country..i would much rather believe and trust what Manmohan Singh says than what Karat or Akbar want us to believe.

Look at this pipe line. It starts from a rogue muslim nation and passes through another rogue muslim nation. So if push comes to shove, is there any guarantee that these nations put aside their religious preferences and honour the deal? Considering the UMMA concept the islamic world follows, it is highly unlikely.

Therefore we are better off without the pipe deal. Even if it offers immediate solution to the energy problems. In the interest of this country, it is better off that we tie up with another democracy than with theocratic and dictatorial regimes.

ManiShankar Aiyar was booted out from the pertoleum portfolio because he was pushing for this pipline. he was duly replaced by a crook and an american agent in Deora. Mulford was appeantly very unhappy with Mani, so ManMohan Singh was called upon to act swiftly that Mani wont do any ghastly acts like finalising the pipeline, so he was booted out and was given the sports ministry.

Chinataka is almost Murali Deora . It starts from a “rogue muslim nation”. Wonder if you are an overt CIA agent in the blogdom or proably a a memeber in the PAT Robertson 700 club! He he..

People can justify Manmohan Singh not taking steps towards the pipe-line. But his record on the Nuclear front is not justifiable if you read the articles of Professor Brahma Chellaney (chellaney.spaces.live.com).

Chellaney claims that during the 90s when Manmohan Singh was the Finance minister, he starved the nuclear programme of funds, disabling new projects and halting uranium exploration. The uranium crunch that we face now is because of those actions.

The same Manmohan Singh criticised Pokhran II.

Chellaney again claims that the Manmohan Singh government has cut Department of Atomic Energy’s budget of this year by more than half a billion dollars.

Manmohan as his economics shows that he is a man totally indebted to the American system and its proponents. Whatever Brahma Chellaney is saying about his former tenure as Finance Minister is very true, people tend to overlook these kind of facts while balthering about the current nuclear deal stalemate. This nuclear deal has an overwhelming support among the loony middle class of India as they are expecting more of H1b visas as we get closer to united states. these middle class which aspire to live an “american dream” are indoctrinated by the same kind of thoughts that are espoused by people like ‘chintaka” in this forum.

“Nuclear Deal is definitely curtailing our independence” – If you dint know this nuclear deal also consists a strategic deal which has been covertly woven in to its fabric.

“This does not mean permanent U.S. presence but only in times of emergency. No wonder Washington is very keen that the two countries sign an Access and Cross Servicing Agreement which would allow logistic support to the U.S. from locations in India. A natural corollary to this would be the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) which would give U.S. troops immunity from violations of laws of the host country. U.S. joint exercises in and around India also make perfect U.S. military sense. There is a clear agenda and a pattern.”

It is just so enigmatic. At the turn of the millennium, people in India were talking about ‘the Man who saw tomorrow’ and thought that India would rise like never before. On the contrary, by the end of the first decade, our working class are working for foreign countries, getting more of their money to boost our growth and acting more in accordance with foreign plans…….

Both the pipeline and the nuclear deal with the US are disasters. One offered by the ummah to keep india permanently dependant on the Irani mullahs for gas and the other being offered by the christian west to stop and rollback the indigenous nuclear program and make it dependant on the west for its energy needs. But by sheer luck Manservant Singh shot down the pipeline with some prodding by the US and the commies shot down the nuclear deal with some prodding and encouragement from the chinese. Overall, India has been benefitted by not entering into these deals. But MJA who is a shia muslim wants to paint a rosy picture about the pipeline for unsuspecting readers.

Its not just the Pipeline. Manmohan Singh also sabotaged the LNG deal with Iran in the pre-text of high prices. Remember when Mani was still the Oil minister, he lined up 3 pipelines. From Turkmenistan, Iran and Myanmar thru Bangladesh.

Manmohan Singh killed all these pipelines so that American companies can sell “nuclear energy” to India. Do you remember what happened the last time an American company sold energy to India? Enron priced its fuel at such non-sensical levels that Maharashtra Electricity Board was close to bankruptcy. Thats Manmohan Singh’s energy security for you.

On other fronts what happened to the 126 Fighter jets order for the Airforce. Vajpayee govt if returned to power would have signed the deal with Mirage as early as 2005 or 06. In other news, India signed a 10 year defense agreement with US with absolutely no debate whatsoever in India,

Finally, I think I now know whom Jaswant Singh called the mole in the PMO. That mole made angry speeches in Parliament rebutting that claim!!

Pipeline from Iran through Pakistan is a pipe-dream that will confer controls on India’s energy security on unreliable hands. In the likelihood of a Chinese attack, it can leverage its influence with Pakistan to undermine India’s position. Better a deal with a Bush than the hostile neighbours. As for Karat and Co, they can stage a protest at Jantar Mantar to get their photographs splashed in the Chindu.

If MMS has really done this sabotage he deserves a Bharat Rathna! Come on getting piped gas from Iran running through Paki territory! Only Manishankar Liar would have gone ahead with this hare-brained scheme. Give me Godavari Gas from Reliance any day!

There you are WRONG again. Somehow you seem to insist on turning the other way, when truth appears before you.

There have been vociferous protests by Muslims in certain parts of the country against the US Nucelar Deal …go check google..and you will see sections of muslims holding placards blasting Bush and his administration and the nuclear deal with India. The communists wanted the Indo Iran gas pipe line deal. Their reasoning: it will keep muslims happy.

Infact, their politburo member has gone on record to say that Samajwadi Party should not support the India US nuclear deal because the Muslims will be unhappy.

But Congress has gone ahead – least bothered about capturing and wooing a votebank.

Because Cong thinks in terms of national interest and not religious interest.
Got it?

and what is wrong with Ummah? On what basis does that say iran is rogue? every religious scripture offers variery of nonsense and do you think the supposed hindu rashtras scriptures are post-modernist verses, it is as retrograde as what others are.. so, we are equally rogue and the lumpens who try to push it down our throats are filthy too…

this is not a credible reason to call an independent nation rogue, if you do that you qualify as the next dubya man!

It appears Clash wants to clash instead of putting up any reasonable arguments. Comments like Ram Setu was built by monkeys, in which Engg college Ram studied come from perverted and sick minds, just to provoke the people.

Clash appears like a closet momeen trying to paint a rosy picture of the ummah and the religion of peace, by equating the “holy” books of the ROP with holy books of sanathan dharma, and calling both retrograde.

The thing is Iran is an Islamic nation. Religion comes first. A non-muslim cant even think of being part of any real decision making process. Unlike India or even the United States. Not that there is anything wrong with that – it is each countries system (democratic or otherwise). Whether India does business with Iran or United States or both will depend on economics and the long term advantages/disadvantages, among a host of other factors. How good the people or Iran are or how the US government is doing stuff to Muslims to monopolize oil etc. is secondary. Such arguments will never end – e.g. Muslims as a group have done far worse to Hindus in India blah blah.

And you cant really compare a democratic system (however inefficient) where a person of any religion can aspire to do anything with theocratic states like Iran/Pakistan.

Fuck the merits/demerits your god or the superiority of your religion to others. Or anyone else’s. It isn’t relevant to the discussion on hand.

Many Muslim countries involved are ruled by either dictators, royal families or religious groups. They oppress, kill, imprison and torture their opponents in a manner worse than the US war in Iraq. They also believe in spreading Islam by any means and suppressing other religions. Sponsoring cross-border terrorism being one of the means.

Pointing out how the US is invading Muslim lands etc. does not really evoke much sympathy among non-muslims.

Arguing endlessly on blogs frequented by non-religious or non-muslim people only reinforces the idea that here is a small group of religious fanatic Muslims who will stop at nothing. Hopefully this kind of fanaticism is confined only to a small group of Muslims and the majority are decent, tolerant people who have other things to do besides religion 24/7.

For me the the scriptures of the so called Sanathan dharma and those other doesnt make much of difference. “Many Muslim countries involved are ruled by either dictators, royal families or religious groups.” – this is because the people in those countries choose to live so, otherwise any such governances are brought down by mass uprisings, history has well witnessed all these and all these has been well doumented. brushing up some history will help in understanding these nuances. Islam in not the only religion that it trying to spread its tentacles, christianity too is involved in this, i would say massively but these efforts by christians are masqueraded much better than islam.

In india islam more or less means pakistan and terrorism and i would say this is a very immature attitude.

I dont owe anything to Islam by endlessly trying to on their part because i am not a muslim. But, when people re-iterate the same ideas which are fed to them by the vile and vicious media ( Calling Iran rogue!), i find it flimsy and shrimpy! But it is of no wonder as the uber-hindu patriotism seems to be ruling this land.

If the majority of people indulge in ‘uber-hindu patriotism’ and do something about it – they will suffer a future similar to any other theocratic state.

Even if it is true, the democratic system will take care of the civil liberties of minorities and women to some extent. We will not sink to the level of a muslim theocracy (forcing women to wear veils by law, having immutable laws directly interpreted from a holy book written centuries ago, making hinduism(?) the state religion etc.).

The people of India wouldnt choose that. Otherwise there would be mass uprisings by now.

I am not impressed! He sounds more like ‘Johnny-Come-Lately’ with his own twisted ideas on what is secular and shit! Also he is looking at crappy football at best. The real football fans look to South America for inspiration. By contrast European football can bore you to tears or death!

Going by ‘Clash’s logic Islam is the best thing that is supposed to have happened to man after he came out of his cave:)

Going by ‘Clash’s logic Islam is the best thing that is supposed to have happened to man after he came out of his cave

I never claimed so! I was rebutting the claims of some intriguing characters here and those who vie for the sanathan dharma and its holiness.

Now about football, if I be didactic about it here, you will probably take a killing. But you seem to deserve that. “The real football fans look to South America for inspiration” – First of all you need to know that football developed in Europe, though there are some unsubstantial claims that the Chinese are the first to play something with a shape that is round. Football in Latin America is essentially played by the descendants of Spanish & Portuguese people who pillaged that continent. Yes the football culture spilled over in to the indigenous tribes too but rarely do we see any indigenous tribesman making a mark in International football from Latin America. Leave alone the Afro clan, which makes up most of the Brazilian wonders.

Football is widely played in Europe. The problem here is that for people like you, EPL is the only football that is happening in Europe, it is not so. I am also quite skeptical in accepting all the teams that ply their trade in EPL and that is why I am fan of Arsenal, which plays the most beautiful and scintillating football in EPL. If you dint know, their style of game is almost same as the so called “real footballing inspiration of yours – South America”. Broadcasters in India fool us by showing the biggest Soap of football that is EPL, but there are some other great leagues which play great football – Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and so on.

It is a very short sighted and putrid remark that you made about my football love and so is the case with my stand on secularism.

And, I would like to make a point here that, I aint any kind of Malliah neither do I aspire to be someone like that in a place like this. I subscribe to the feed of this blog as it carries good articles and some interesting stories that interest me. Content wise, this blog doesn’t fail me. Occasionally I do comment here, when issues which I care about are covered. But sad to say, the comments in this blog are the worst and retrograde that I have ever seen in Indian blogdom. Most of them are fervid blathering about identity and religion. I would not mind saying some are obscenely racist in their approach and obviously chauvinistic (I would say regionally jingoistic!) in nature!

Americans never went for nuclear power due to the problem of nuclear waste which is not solved even today.that is why they left the irradiated fuel rods in tarapur and didnot allow us to reprocess also as we are a servile power to USA,russia or whoever is a strong nation.We are outsourcing our security to USA as Japan has done and so be it.